Customer Reviews

Oregon Scientific WR113 Weather Radio with Temperature and Freeze Alarm

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Bought the Oregon Scientific Weather Radio on their reputation as being a top notch innovative company. I have owned an older version of a weather radio 8 years ago and wanted to get a newer model that had better reception. Radio also came with AC adapter which is a selling point.

The Good: Ordered it from Amazon and got it in three days. Super fast.
Radio's yellow color is easy to locate in a hurry. Radio sensitivity was good.

The Bad: Radio is below par for Oregon Scientific. As read on other reviews of the WR103 (similar to WR113) on the net, the temperature reading is way off. Was reading 75 degrees when my digital thermostat read 68. Believe me, it was not 75 degrees.

Other problem right out of the box was that the received station cut out every ten seconds just as if it was programmed to do that. You could set your clock to the every ten seconds the audio cut out all you heard was hiss. Thought it was the station so I turned on the old radio and the signal was there all the time just as always. Called Oregon Scientific and could not get through in three days. Sent them an email and received a note that they would contact me within four(4) days. How many bad products could they now be selling that it takes customer service four days to return a call. They never got back to me. I returned it to Amazon and got a refund.

Oregon Scientific - Do away with that annoying beep every time you press a button. In the middle of the night, I don't want to be waking others with that obnoxious beeping. My older radio did not have that annoying function and it's temperature reading was accurate.

Don't know what to say about our American companies sending their products overseas for manufacturing and they have no quality control over them.

This is a very nice weather radio and has pretty good reception. I like that you can program up to 6 counties with SAME codes. It has yet to go off but Storm season in Oklahoma is right around the corner. I needed something to take to work and when traveling that would alert me to bad weather. I also like the alarm clock an freeze warning functions.

About the On Off swtich: I have never owned a weather radio that had an on off switch. This would increase the chance of accidently turning the unit off. What I do is leave the unit plugged into the adapater when not in use and when leaving I always check the battery light. This is one of the best portable weather radios I have seen.

I own this unit and it worked great for a year or so but then it stopped alerting. I messed with it for quite a while trying to figure out what was wrong and finally called the company and found out it has been recalled for this problem. They are doing a free replacement with the WR601 model after I return my old unit. They were great to work with. Hopefully this 601 model won't have the same issues after some time.

I have a Midland home model and this one. Both work great. I like to take a portable model to the lake or if I'm outdoors for an extended period.

Nice, compact, fairly substantially-made little radio. Very good reception. Very difficult to program - don't lose that owner's manual! They shoulda' made this thing with a little keypad for input instead of having to press this button for so many seconds, then this button, then rub your tummy while jumping around on one foot...and that's just to turn it on!! Oh, alright, it's not quite that bad, but programming the S.A.M.E. codes took a while to figure out. Also, the "alerts" are so *&^%ing LOUD! I don't mean, slightly annoyingly loud, I mean really, really LOUD, and I don't think there's a way to turn it down before it goes off. If this thing is on your bed stand, the tornado won't get you, this thing will...in the form of a heart attack when the "alert" goes off!! I guess I'll put it under a pillow in standby mode. Shoulda' gone with a more expensive Radio Shack model. HOWEVER, the price was good, the quality seems to be very good to excellent, and, seriously, if you are a very heavy sleeper or hard of hearing, this will definitely fit the bill for you.

We purchased two of these for our office. We needed to have a radio that would be stationary and in the case of a Tornado warning, the radio then could be portable. The only thing that would make this a better radio would be a rechargeable battery and that the desk cradle would have built in connectors that would charge the battery when docked. I hate having to plug in the power cord.

This is a great radio, it just needs an On/Off switch to conserve the batteries.

Nice product. Handy to have.

I really like that this weather radio also has an alarm on it so that if the electricity goes out, your not late for work.

I have to admit up front that I do not own this radio. I saw the very same model reviewed here at a local electronics store and they had a display model all powered up. I picked it up for I had to see for myself that there was no on/off switch. Not that I doubted any of the reviewers here. With such a glaring design flaw I just had to see for myself. Sure enough, there is no way to turn this unit off without removing the batteries. Its still being powered from the batteries when in the standby/alert mode. And of course the digital display is always eating up juice. The lack of an on/off switch wouldn't be so bad if there was no digital display to use up a lot of power. But since Oregon Scientific saw it fit to be that fashionable, the lack of a way to turn the radio off is nothing but downright stupid. It really is unfortunate that this radio has in my opinion an unforgivable design flaw. For it really is a rugged little radio that feels very solid in your hand. And it gets excellent reception. Unfortunately because of the constant battery drain, I did not purchase this radio, nor would I recommend it to anyone else. If you want a solid little radio that gets excellent reception, and Ta Da!!, has an on/off switch, take a look at the Midland pocket radio I have inserted a link too. I actually own this one and its an excellent radio. It has an alert feature as well and with no digital display, lasts a very long time on two AAA batteries.MIDLAND HH50 Pocket Weather Radio

After many years being a storm chaser and having a hand held weather radio I decided to upgrade a little so I bought the WR113. It seemed to be a perfect buy for me since I needed a handheld battery operated weather radio that I could just stick on my belt. Well today I recived my new radio but without something they don't bother to tell you about, NO ON/OFF SWITCH! Now it maybe just me but how stupid is it to make a portable handheld battery operated weather radio with no on/off switch. I can just see myself paying for the enegizer bunny's new mansion because of this. Would anyone buy a MP3 player with no ON/OFF switch, well probably not. I have to wonder which brain child from Oregon scientific the company that makes the weather radio, came up with this plan. I can just see myself replacing batteries everyday or recharging batteries everyday. Don't buy it folks this is a ripoff!